Comments

The livestock depot and the original single track to TST could be seen in the lower centre of the photo too, just on the left of the junction of Princess Margret Road/Chatham Road/Hong Chong Road. I still remember the pig cars for their noise and smell.

On the other hand, I once saw British Tanks and armoured vehicles in the hanger (also visible) of the Barracks on the opposite side.

If you zoom in, you should be able to locate a circular structure right next to one of the old Hung Hom Piers. I have forgotten the proper name of this thing, but it is a heavy duty revolving platform used to turn locomotives around.

I also remember the Hung Hum Terminal did not have Y tracks for movements of locomotives in the Southern end. Instead they had something heavyduty & mechanical to move locomotives to the adjacent track but those thing moves sideways. Better check with some of those railway enthusiasts to confirm.

The circular device was known as a Turntable and used to rotate locomotives so the driving cab was returned to the direction of travel. The linear device is/was a Traverser and was situated at the very end of the tracks in the terminus. Used to save space when moving locomotives between tracks to extract them from the leading end of the train. It was basically a length of track on which the locomotive was placed which was moved sideways by motors on its own track. I do not recall seeing any photographs of the Traverser in use. If its still there to move the China Rail locomotives, its probably hidden from view on the international side of the security fence

Thanks for bringing up the terms. The mentioned Turntable seemed to be gone already but I found some articles in a local forum dated March 2012 that the Traverser coud still be seen if one walk to the very end on the Southern side of Platform Four. You are correct, it is on the other side of the fence.

Best Regards,

T

ps According to the forum article, KCRC staff back then nicknamed the Traverser at the Terminus as Deep Fried Crab (油炸蟹).

pps Found some photos of Traversers. Some of those things have structures sticking up from the platform, like a dead crab with its belly up. I wonder if this is why tey nicknamed it Deep Fried Crab.